Fanlore:Editorial Procedures
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Formatting pointers
- When creating new pages, for the sake of consistency, use title case unless the the name of the article is the name of a person or object with its own rules of capitalization, such as a song title, or personal name.
- When possible, use templates to help you format a page, keeping in mind that your formatting may be changed by other users, later.
- Please use correct spelling, and avoid slang and nonstandard grammar when writing articles. When spellings differ internationally, the wiki does not have a preference, but please avoid mixing differing spelling conventions within a sentence.
- Note: Fannish terminology is not considered slang, but should be marked with a [[wiki link]] to a place where users unfamiliar with it will be able to find a definition.
Internal links
We encourage editors to use [[internal links]] to other pages on the wiki wherever the opportunity arises.
If the material you are contributing contains terms or subjects for which we have articles on the wiki, please make the first occurrence of each in your own article an internal link.
Similarly, if you use a term or mention a subject for which there is no article yet, but there should be, make it an internal link also. This will then show up as an article in demand, encouraging others to create it.
Following this practice will help us to both grow the wiki and also ensure it is a rich, intensely inter-connected resource.
Using Wiki Markup
MediaWiki, the software Fanlore is built on, has its own markup for formatting items such as external links, internal links, bold, italic, et cetera. See the Help pages for more detailed information. You may also wish to use the formatting buttons at the top of each edit box.
Citation
Fanlore has developed an extensive Citation policy that includes guidelines on when, how and what to cite and quote. Please familiarise yourself with them if you are going to contribute to the wiki, and be aware that other users may edit your work to align with this policy.
Categorising Pages
Fanlore has an established set of categories to organise information. This set is open to expansion following consultation. Please do not create new categories independently. You may, however, cross-categorise as you wish.
You can find the list of available categories and where they sit on the hierarchy at Fanlore:Sitemap.
When adding category tags to a page, please place them in order of where the page occurs in the hierarchy, which ensures that categories provide "breadcrumb" links also; e.g., the article Fan Fiction would have the following category tags: [[Category:Fan Practices]][[Category:Writing]][[Category:Fiction]]
With a cross-categorised page, for example one on a fanwork, e.g. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, follow similar breadcrumb rules for each category:
[[Category:Fan Practices]][[Category:Writing]][[Category:Fiction]] [[Category:Individual Fanworks & Entities]][[Category:Fanworks]]
Though categories will always display at the bottom of an article no matter where the tag goes on the page, we recommend you put them at the bottom of your page while editing so that other editors can easily find them.
Gardeners will be monitoring the use of category tags and will make adjustments to suit both the Sitemap and breadcrumb ideal, making edits where necessary. If you would like to suggest an expansion of the Sitemap, or have a question about it, please leave a comment on its talk page.
Relevance of Content
Fanlore exists both within and in support of fan communities that create and consume transformative works. Beyond this basic requirement for relevance of content, we are far from strict.
In line with our PPOV Policy, Fanlore does not have requirements for notability of material. As administrators of the wiki, we have not set requirements for what material is "worthy" of being housed on the wiki or not.
This is because we believe we are not in a position to pass judgement on what material is worthy of documenting for each fan community we hope to serve. In line with the PPOV policy, our 'relevance requirement' is that if a contributor believes something is worthy of documenting, then we fully support documenting it.
Similarly, we do not wish to overload the wiki with trivia, and therefore will not attempt to document parts of communities that the communities/fans in question do not believe are relevant.
We believe our responsibility in this respect is to aid and encourage fans and communities to contribute the material that is relevant and important to them, not to make rules about how that's determined for the fan community as a whole.
The role of Fanlore 'staff'
A number of volunteers have committed to both assisting Fanlore users and improving the content. You can find more about them on each of their pages:
- Gardeners - who work to improve content, monitor changes, and assist users with editing the wiki.
- Administrators - who manage users and user permissions, and help resolve disputes.
- Wiki Committee - who manage and develop policy and technical requirements, and resolve high-level disputes.
If you're interested in becoming involved in one of these groups, please see Fanlore:Volunteers.
Problematic edits and other disputes
We have identified a number of Deceptive Practices that are banned on the Fanlore wiki.
Procedures for dealing with the above, and other disputes, can be found on the Managing Conflict page.
| WIP | We're working on this admin article! If there are empty sections, we'll be completing them during the beta period. |
Using Infoboxes
- What infoboxes are for
- How to use them
What to Name a page?
- Guidelines for neutral terms where possible
| WIP | We're working on this admin article! If there are empty sections, we'll be completing them during the beta period. |
When you create a new page, one of the first things you'll have to do is define its title.
The best way to get the title right is to type it exactly as you want it into the search box and hit "Go". This includes the correct grammar. So, for example, to create An Archive of Our Own, "An Archive of Our Own" was put in the search box, not "an archive of our own".
Singular
There is a strong preference for singular terms over plural, unless the term is never or hardly ever used in the singular, because it is simpler to link to the singular by writing [[Title]]s than to the plural, ie, [[Titles|Title]].
Capitalization
In general, the first letter of each word in an article title should be capitalized, with the exception of names (of persons, organizations, or works) with an established pattern of capitalization, such as bell hooks or due South.
Lowercase titles
The first letter of your title will be automatically transformed to uppercase. It is possible to override this where necessary (for example, due South); to do so, use the following magic word:
{{DISPLAYTITLE:xyz}}
Put the above anywhere on the page (we recommend at the end, after the categories), and replace xyz with the title exactly how you want it. For example:
{{DISPLAYTITLE:due South}}
Will ensure the title of the page is due South instead of Due South.
Foreign Language Terms
When a page name for an English-language article includes accent marks, please create a redirect to that page using the anglicized version of the name.
Abbreviations & Acronyms
We're working on this. Hard!
Disambiguation
Where there could be several articles with the same title, a disambiguation page can be created. When you search for the common term, a page that suggests the different options you mean will come up.
A page which needs disambiguation may need to have parentheses in its title in order to define it.
For a good example of how this all works in practice, see Closer.
Naming fanworks
Pages about individual fanworks should include the work's author(s) in the title, and the title of the work itself should be separated from the author(s) name(s) by a dash. For example, Closer - TJonesy & Killa.
Other grammar
- Use ampersands (&) instead of 'and' (unless the and is part of a proper noun).
- Virgules (/) should be avoided except where necessary, as they define subpages. (Said with the understanding that it is a core part of pairings and fannish terms, and shouldn't be avoided in those cases.)
Changing an article's title
There is no way to edit the article's title as such; you must use the "move" function to change the title of an article. Basic users are unable to move articles, you must ask a Gardener to do so.
Moving an article will automatically set up a redirect from the article's previous title, which means that anywhere the former page was linked, the user will ultimately get to where they need to be. To help keep articles easily found, and avoid article duplication, we encourage editors to follow these practices when naming articles:
